Advisers Karren Brady and Claude Littner will join Lord Sugar in his search for a new business partner as The Apprentice returns to our screens with a batch of 18 new contestants.

Discussing the ongoing appeal of the show, Lord Sugar said: “There’s an underlying business message in there which has really inspired youngsters from the age of 13 upwards.

“I mean, if I had to visit every school that does a kind of apprentice process, you know, amongst students, there wouldn’t be enough hours in the day or in the year to do it, so it has driven that throughout the whole of the country.”